Ghost in the Inn
by GerudoGirl89
Summary: HIATUS I knew my family was weird, but purchasing an old inn is just plain creepy. Why do I keep hearing pacing and crying in the hall? Will it ever go away, or will we have to move again? What terrible thing happened to the girl in the guest room?
1. A New Home

**Ghosts in the Inn**

Chapter 1: A New Home

_**Hello there! This is GerudoGirl89, and this is my story, it does not belong to Wave in any way. It's all MINE. Chapter 3 of Wave's story will be up soon, I've been having CPU problems. Sorry folks.  
**_**Link: GerudoGirl89 owns the story.

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I've always thought my family was just a little weird. Okay, make that _very _weird. Everyone always comments on how cool, but kinda strange, my family is. I already _knew _that, I'd been living with them thirteen years when _it _happened.

What is _it_, you may ask?

Let me start from the beginning. I was relaxing in the living room of our small house with my sister, reading a book, when Mom came in and made an announcement. She always made announcements when everybody was relaxed and happy, maybe she figured we wouldn't yell at her for things about her harebrained plans we didn't like.

"I found a new home!" she said brightly, tossing strands of reddish hair over her shoulder. I groaned loudly. We'd moved several times in the last few years, first from Las Vegas, to Cincinnati, to Mute City, Seattle Washington, Hyrule, and then to our current home in Florida.

"Where this time?" demanded my older sister, Alexis. She was sixteen, and had moved twenty-three times in her life, or so she claimed. I had the feeling it was more toward ten times, but if I even _thought _she was telling a story, she'd throw me in a trash bin somewhere.

"Termina," replied Mom. I dropped the book I was holding.

"Termina?!" I yelled. "That's like, literally a world away! That's closer to Hyrule! It's practically in a different galaxy!"

"Mom! I've got friends here!" whined Alexis.

"We're starting a band!" protested Mark, my older brother. He and his friends had decided to start a garage band the day before. Great timing, bro.

Mom held up her hand for silence. "That's true," she sighed. "I know you all have lives here, but you'll get to make new friends!Remember when we stayed in the Mushroom Kingdom?"

Alexis and Mark winced. I hadn't been born at the time, but Mark told me they traveled from North Dakota to the Mushroom Kingdom, where they'd actually met Princess Peach III. They'd been friends until Peach's birthday party, when Dad decided it was time for a move to Holodrum. On the day of the young Princess's party they packed up and left, and when Mark tried to email her, she'd ignored him. Talk about the suckiest move ever.

"Yeah, Mom, we remember," muttered Alexis. "So what's the house?"

"Actually, it's an Inn."

Mark stared at her. "Huh?" Nayru, he can be so clueless sometimes . . .

"It's called the Stock Pot Inn, isn't that cute?" Mom beamed at us, but we really didn't take the bait. There was something vaguely wrong with this . . . .

"Whatever, Mom," said Mark impatiently. "How'd you hear about it?"

"Well, the old owner died a few months ago and I just leaped at the chance. It's old, it was there when the town walls were first raised about two hundred years ago. The Inn itself has been added on to several times, so instead of three rooms, there's about twenty. And, since your Dad's a carpenter and Uncle Roy loves to build things, I figured they could fix it up and we could start getting some income. There aren't many hotels in Termina."

"So, when do we leave?" I asked, resigned to the fact that no one, not even the Goddesses themselves, would change her mind. Mom smiled at me for supporting her, but frankly I could care less, I was just curious to know how long I had to say good-bye to all my friends.

"Four days." At the mutinous looks the three of us gave her, Mom added, "Come on, it'll be fun!"

I hated it when she said stuff like that, it always meant we had to move. But a 200 year old hotel . . . what could possibly go wrong?

Looking back on that, I really want to slap myself. Hard. And keep slapping myself until I'm half-dead.

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_**Short chapter, but the real fun begins later. Review please!**_


	2. Settling In

**Chapter 2: Settling in**

_**Hello there! My CPU is working (for the moment) and so I figured it would be smart to upload anything I could. So, I wrote this quick, edited it on paper, and then made the corrections as fast as possible. I own the storyline.  
**__**Oh, yes, Liquid Soul: Almost everyone in this story is an OC, because it is set several hundred years after Majora's Mask. However, there will be a few Zelda characters. You'll see.

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**_**  
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Four days later, we stood in front of our new house. I'd had to say good-bye to all my best friends, including my girlfriend, Megan. Now, so far away from her, I was worried that she'd find someone else.

In case you haven't figured it out, I'm a guy; I'm the fourth youngest in a group of seven kids. There's three-year-old Lilly, five-year-old Kevin, ten-year-old Beth, me, at thirteen, Alexis, Mark, and my older brother, Tyler, who's married with two kids (Sydney and Gabriella, three and six). I look more like my dad, with black hair and Mom's green-gray eyes. Mark has Dad's hair and blue eyes, Beth has red hair and eyes that are sort of a cross between green and blue, Alexis has black hair and hazel-ish eyes, Kevin is a true redhead with Dad's eye color, Lilly is a redhead with Mom's eye color.

"Yo, Jake, earth to JAAAAKE!" Alexis yelled in my ear. I winced and accepted a box full of her stuff. Mom and Dad were already inside, deciding how to have the least amount of rooms possible given to us kids.

"Beth, you're with Jake, Lilly and Kevin are together, Alexis and Mark get their own rooms," recited Dad. "And Tyler and Amanda get a room together, Sydney and Gabby stay with Kev and Lil."

I dropped the box on my foot, and Alexis yelled at me for being so clumsy with her stuff. "What?" I asked, ignoring my sister's screeches. "Tyler's gonna be here?!"

"Yes he is. They've decided to come here on a little vacation." Mom was smiling, but my heart sank through my gut into my knee somewhere.

"How long?" asked Mark warily.

"Three weeks."

Alexis, Mark, and I groaned. Sydney and Gabby were all right, but . . . hyperness . . . Oh Farore, we're gonna die.

Eventually, Mom and Dad assigned us rooms. Lilly and Kevin got the room right down the hall from mine, on the end of the upper hallway, I got the one in the middle, and the one on the end was Alexis's. Mom and Dad got the room next to the kitchen, Mark had a room in the western wing, and Tyler and Amanda were staying in another guest room in the northern upstairs wing.

The kitchen was nice enough, it had an old-world feel, with lots of dark wood and old cabinets. It was obvious there had been a few additions here and there. The room was moldy and dusty, but that made my parents all the more enthusiastic.

"Oh, wow," said Dad. "An old stove! It's made of hardened clay and stone. See that, kids, people in those times _could _cook food!"

Alexis and I only rolled our eyes. Mark was fixing up his room the way he liked it, the little kids were with Mom, and Tyler . . .

Was knocking on the door.

Mom sped over there to embrace him, greet Amanda, and hug the little ones. Amanda was a good-looking woman, with long, soft blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Sydney had inherited Mark's black hair and her mother's eyes, Gabby was her Mom in miniature. Speak of the devils, they stood in front of their Dad, looking around eagerly.

I groaned and slipped upstairs. The longer away from Sydney and Gabby, the better.

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Mark barged into my room without a second thought. "DUDE!" I yelled at him. "Get lost!"

"Mom says dinner time," he replied. I threw a pillow at him. He grinned and tackled me. We wrestled a little, until Alexis started knocking on the wall.

"QUIT IT!" she screamed.

I knocked back. "Mom says DINNER!"

"Well then, stop thumping on my wall!"

"All right." Mark pulled away and left my room. I swore under my breath when I saw my appearance and vainly tried to fix my hair. Mom would kill me if I went to the dinner table like this.

We arrived in the kitchen shortly before Alexis, who went over to hug Tyler and help Mom with something. "Hey, squirt," said Tyler cheerfully. He was sitting at the kitchen table next to Amanda, with Kevin on his knee. His black hair was longer than it had been, and his blue eyes sparkled with the old mischievousness. I resisted the urge to hit him, until he grabbed me in a headlock.

"Boys!" Mom said, so sharp I almost bled. She was setting plates on the table, and Dad was trying to cook the last of the meat. Beth was talking with Amanda.

_Fweeee! _The stove suddenly caught fire under the pan of vegetables and meat. Mom shrieked with surprise and fear. Mark, Tyler, and Amanda got the little kids and Beth out of the room. I stared at the flame. Was that a . . .

A _face _in the fire?

It blinked and looked at me, then turned away. My legs went numb. It tried to reach out to me, and then Dad unplugged the stove. He brought out the extinguisher he'd put in the cabinet.

When the fire was out he pulled a rag from under the burner. The fire, and the face, were gone. "Should have checked this first," he chuckled. "It's okay, kids," he assured Kevin and Gabby. Lilly was still clinging to Tyler and Sydney was being held by her mother.

Alexis was frozen, staring at the place where the fire had been. I sidled up to her and muttered, "Did you see what I saw?"

"Huh?" she asked blankly.

"Sort of, like, a face in the fire?"

"What?! No! I didn't see anything!" I stood bewildered as she pushed past me and ran up to her room. The pounding of her boots and the door violently slamming echoed through the ceiling. Mom, Dad, Mark, Amanda, Beth, Tyler, and I stared at each other, wondering what could possibly have scared Alexis so badly.

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After dinner, I headed up to my room, tired from the move. I put some stuff from the boxes away in the cabinets and set up my GameCube. Dad had asked me to make a list of what needed to be done maintenance wise, so I put _wallpaper _down on the list. But my mind kept wandering back to the face in the fire, and Alexis's reaction.

I figured some games would calm me down, so I played _Pokémon Coliseum _for a while. Hey, I'd actually been to Orre once, it was a great place after the real Seth beat Snagem. That's why I always called my characters Seth and Yuki. Those were their real names.

Around ten, I started to get tired of kicking Snagem butt, so I turned off the Cube and got into bed, still pondering on the face in the fire. Beth grumbled about me staying up so late, but I decided not to throw something at her. Finally, I fell asleep.

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Eleven thirty. The clock said eleven thirty. I jolted awake, listening to something. Pacing outside my door. Curious as to who would be up at this time, I grabbed a flashlight and went into the hall, shutting the door softly for fear of waking Beth or the little kids up. If anyone asked, I would say I was heading for the bathroom.

Moonlight filtered in through the windows, thick with dust and grime. I stopped short. A dark shape was standing outside Lexis's room, face obscured by shadow. It slowly moved down the stairs. I followed it with my flashlight off. It turned at the foot of the stairs, past Mom and Dad's room, the bathroom, and into the kitchen. There it stood, apparently waiting for something. Heart hammering in my throat, I turned on the flashlight . . .

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**Me: Oooh, cliffie! I know it's a short chapter, but the good part comes later. Taki!  
****Taki: If anyone guesses who the shape is, then you get a cookie!  
****Me: Or, a guest appearance in my (or Wave's if I ask) next fic.  
****Taki: So . . .  
****Me: Please review! Anon reviews enabled for this very reason, folks! Don't be shy! At least three reviews (And you don't count, Wave) before I update again. The next chapter is a POV switch as soon as Jake starts wrestling with Mark. Until next time!**


	3. Information

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Chapter 3: Information

Hello, people. Sorry it's been such a long time. I finished New Beginnings (Which took FOREVER) and, yeah . . . blame homework, Brawl, Twilight Princess, whatever you want to. Anyway, uh, yeah. I own the story. :)

**Zelda: This chapter is in Alexis's POV. Read. FFN is being evil, BTW, so the formatting is off a little. Second, if anyone can tell what was different about last chapter's author notes, you get a cookie! Or whatever you want, GerudoGirl's not about to find your house just to give you a cookie. Just pretend or something ;)  
**

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Alexis:

God, I swear that Jake is so immature. I know I'm only three years older than him, but does he _need _to pound on the walls?!

Yeah, okay, that's enough complaining. Soon after I finished yelling at him, I heard his door open, so I assumed him and Mark were gone. Eager to say hi to Tyler, I slipped out of my room and headed downstairs. "How's my oldest sister?" he asked cheerfully. I grinned. Such a great guy, even if he did torment all of us once in a while.

"Lexis!" cried Amanda, coming into the room. The little terrors (well, they were angels some of the time, especially when their parents or our parents were around. But, they were terrors most of the time, especially when it was just Jake, me, or Mark) crept into the room and ran at me. Sydney wrapped her arms around my leg, Gabby around my waist. Amanda hugged me when the kids let go. Kevin was sitting on Tyler's lap, Sydney went to sit on Mark's, and Lilly and Gabby were talking with Amanda. Dad was having fun cooking (oh, Nayru, we're going to die of food poisoning), Mom was setting plates down, and Jake was talking with Tyler.

"Lex, help me with these?" asked Mom. I groaned and took a stack of plates.

"Whoa!" _Fweeeeet! _Holy Farore, Dad's cooking! The fire alarm whined in my ears, and I saw Mark, Amanda, and Tyler move the four kids out into the hall. The fire had appeared directly under the vegetables. Yummy, burnt veggies.

As I stared at the fire, I began to see a form. It was a woman, and she was staring at Jake. Then she turned to me, and wailed. It was hard to hear over the fire alarm. _Where? Why can't I find? What's happening? _she cried. _Where . . . _she screamed then, because Dad had finally found the fire extinguisher. White foam spurted out over the woman's image, and the only thing left was white, foamy vegetables and her cries, which mingled with the dying fire alarm. Gone.

As Dad blustered about the rag he'd found under the burner, Jake came up to me. "Did you see what I saw?" he muttered.

"Huh?" I asked, trying to play dumb. My heart was still pounding. No one else seemed to have noticed any face or voice.

"Sort of, like, a face in the fire?"  
Tears welled up in my eyes for no apparent reason. "What?! No! I didn't see anything!" I dashed out of the room and up the stairs, opening my bedroom door and throwing myself down on the bed. _He's mocking me_, I thought. _He didn't see anything! He's trying to make me feel crazy._

_**Then why did he stare at the fire? **_asked another part of my mind.

_He's a pyro._

_**No he's not, he saw something.**_

_Get lost, brain!__**You're arguing with yourself again! This is just like the time when you debated going to that concert . . . **_

_Don't even start about that!_

_**Maybe you should talk with him about it.**_

_Maybe you should shut up,_ I responded rudely. _Oh, Farore, I'm talking to my own mind._

I skipped dinner and heard the kids running upstairs for bedtime. Jake and Beth came some time later, I didn't look at my clock and check. Jake was playing _Pokémon Coliseum, _only he would be playing this late at night. I have to admit, Seth was really nice, and so was Yuki, but she had no fashion sense. Every time I play that game, I have to laugh at her outfit.

The poster of Justin Timberlake gazed at me as I fell asleep listening to Jake's games.

I jerked awake. Something was moving in my room. Not something . . . someone. There was someone in my room. I looked around frantically, wondering whether Mom and Dad forgot to lock the door or clear the place of knife-wielding psycho killers.

The answer came almost immediately. There was a woman standing there, a little younger than Amanda, maybe twenty-three or four. Her long hair was pulled neatly back, her dress had seen better days. But she was lit with a slight blue tint, and I could see the door through her body. _Ghost . . . . _

It was, without a doubt, the woman I'd seen in the fire.

She paced about the room, eyes full of worry and hope. I shivered when I saw her foot pass directly through a box of my unpacked stuff. She glanced up at the wall, but when I looked, there was nothing. _Eleven thirty_, she whispered, voice soft and echoing. _Yes . . . _she floated out, no, _through_, the door. Even though I was scared, I tiptoed out the door. The woman was already floating down the stairs.

I followed her downstairs and down the hall, past Mom and Dad's room, the entrance to one of the wings, and the tiny bathroom. And then, I felt a hand touch my shoulder.

I stifled a yell and jumped around. It was only Jake. "What are you doing up at this hour, squirt?" I hissed.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"Bathroom," I said automatically.

_Where is he? _Jake and I both jumped. Ignoring his questions I ran into the kitchen.

The woman stood there, gazing toward the door. _Where is he? He promised he'd help me . . . _she burst into tears and pulled something from her skirt. She pulled a stone out of the wall and stuffed the item in, then sat against the wall and cried.

"Who . . . who are you?" I demanded. Jake was shaking so hard, his flashlight beam was waving around behind me.

_Why hasn't he come? He promised! _The woman sobbed, and vanished into thin air.

"Wait!" I hissed. "What are you talking about? Who are you? Where . . ."  
The light clicked on. Amanda was glaring at us from the doorway in a pink bathrobe. I groaned silently. Not good.

"What the HELL are you two doing up at this hour?!" she yelled. "I heard you thumping down the stairs from our room!"

"Jeez, I was going to the bathroom," snapped Jake. "I found Alexis in here! We didn't _thump _down the stairs!"

"You were yelling at the top of your lungs!" she snarled, "I heard you!"

"Manda, we weren't yelling!" Jake protested. Amanda frowned dangerously.

"Then who was?"

"That's a good question," I muttered, and left without another word.

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**The next day:**

"We're coming here why?" I muttered. Jake was glaring at me from the top step, so I groaned and followed him into the Termina Public Library.

"To find out more about the Inn," he retorted. The place was pretty big, with antique furniture and soft carpets, and of course books of every type. Jake was already checking a library computer for info. I moaned at his enthusiasm, earning me a sharp glare from the librarian.

A sign caught my eye. _Termina Library's Book of the Month: __Termina: 400 Years__. _I picked up a copy from the pile underneath the sign. Absently I flipped through it, mostly looking at pictures. "_Mayor Dottour gives Stock Pot Inn owner building rights" _was the title of one picture. Some weird-looking guy with a funny hairdo, someone so ugly I almost threw the book away, and a younger man were standing in a group. The weird guy, who I assumed to be Mayor Dottour, had a slip of parchment in his hand, handing it to two women. The older woman had her hand out to receive it. She looked unfamiliar, but the younger girl next to her . . . .

"Jake!" his head popped up. The librarian hissed at me to be quiet, but I ignored her and showed the picture to my brother. "That's the girl I saw!"

He took the book from me. "'200 years ago, Mayor Dottour (middle ) gave the Inn owner, Ellen (middle) and her daughter, Anju (last on the right) rights to build a second wing to expand their Inn and attract more tourism. Mayor Dottour is seen above with his wife Madame Aroma (left) and his son, Kafei (second on the left) handing them the building rights.'"

"Anju?" I muttered. "Anju . . . the Inn owner? Why is she still haunting it?"

"Wait!" commanded Jake. "Listen. 'Kafei and Anju were to be married until Kafei mysteriously disappeared, two weeks after this picture was taken. Anju turned up dead the day after the Carnival of Time, three weeks after Kafei vanished. Cause of death unknown."  
"Why did she die?" I whispered.

"Death unknown," he replied solemnly. "But I think it had something to do with her husband-to-be."

"Ya think?" I asked scornfully.

"Whatever, Lexis," he replied. "Anyway . . . what about that thing we saw her stuff in the wall?" At my blank look, he added, "last night?"

And then I remembered. _Oh yeah . . . _

_**Told you you're crazy.**_

_Shut up, brain!_

_**I'm your Spiritual Guardian. How else do you think you were able to talk with Anju? Jake cannot, because I do not inhabit his body. **_

_Stupid Spirit Guardian. Why didn't you tell me you were in my head?_

_**It was not the time**_, the Guardian said smugly. _**Now is the time, as you are now Spiritually Aware. You can See and Hear. Others do not have that privilege.**_

_I'm going to ignore you know_, I replied coldly. Ignoring the Guardian's protests, I checked out the book (the librarian was still glowering at me) and left with Jake.

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No one was in the kitchen when we got there. The kids were upstairs, Mark and Tyler were helping Dad with work on the floors upstairs, Amanda was watching the kids, and Mom . . . probably shopping or something.

"Which brick was it?" muttered Jake. I shrugged. He began to randomly tap on the bricks until he hit something hollow. "Found it!" he crowed.

"Shut up," I hissed. "Here." I passed him a butter knife from the drawer. After a few minutes prying and pulling, he wrenched out the brick. It was dusty and hard to remove after such a long time, but we managed.

Jake held up the bent butter knife. "I hope Mom doesn't find out," he sighed.

"Shut up and get the thing," I growled. He gave me a death glare and stuck his hand in the opening. Eventually, he produced an envelope. I impatiently cut the envelope open with the knife and read.

The handwriting was thin, slanted, and faint after so many years unattended to. I squinted hard to read it.

_My Dearest Kafei,_

_I hope this letter reaches you, wherever you are. If you still love me, I must know. Send the Pendant of Memories back to me. A young boy with a green hat will deliver it to me, and I will finally know if you truly still love me. If you do, then there is nothing that can stop our wedding, nothing can come between us and our union, not even your mother. But, if you no longer love me, do not reply and I will call off the wedding. I will not be your fiancé. Do not feel that you need to marry me if you no longer care for me.  
__I will always be devoted to you, I will never forget you.  
__Love,  
__Anju_

"A young boy with a green hat," I muttered. "Hmm . . ."

"What happened to the boy?" Jake wondered.

_He vanished._ I turned around.Anju had come back.

_**

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Hello! What did you think?  
**_**Vaati: You finally updated. Thank O heavenly Farore.  
**_**Be quiet. Review!**_


	4. Kafei and the Guardian

**Chapter 4: Kafei**

_**Hey guys. If you're still with me here (Onion1122, for example, you'd better still be reading) I finally got around to posting this. I was busy with my SSBB story and my first one-shot, "Reflections." It follows **_**New Beginnings. **_**Then I had a TON of homework, and then I got sick. But enough about that, I own NOTHING! So would Nintendo please remove the lawyers from my property?!  
**_**Taki: Namco's lawyers too.  
**_**Urgh . . . just read.

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**_

Alexis:_**  
**_

"Anju," I said aloud. Jake gave me a funny look. "What?!"

"You're talking to a freaking spirit," he said flatly. I shrugged.

_Please don't go, I'm so lonely,_ Anju whispered. Her voice echoed in whatever parallel plane of reality spirits existed on.

"I know, must be pretty boring to be a ghost and float around," I replied. Jake was _still _staring at me. "What?!" I demanded crossly.

"How can you hear her and I can't?"

I sighed. "I guess it's something called a 'Spiritual Guardian' or something. He's really irritating."

**Hey!**

_**Shut up. **_I growled back. Ignoring this, I faced Anju again. She was standing beside the stove, gazing at me with sad eyes. "So what happened to you?" I asked politely. "Why did you . . . die?"

Anju sobbed and vanished. The whole room went gray; the only things I could see were my own body and Jake's. _This . . . . _whispered Anju.

When the room came back into focus, it was a lot smaller. The old clay/brick cooking stove thingy was still in the corner. A row of counters stretched from the stove in the right corner to the wall. Along the other wall was a cabinet, full of plates, silverware, and pots and pans. A little stream ran through the wall in the corner opposite the stove. Someone placed a table in the center.

Anju was there as she was in life, leaning against the table, eyes full of worry and sorrow. I shivered when I saw her stuff the letter behind the brick, because I knew what came next.

Anju carefully wrapped a black shawl around her shoulders and placed a white veil on her head. She wore a wedding dress, not the clothes her spirit had on. In her hand, she clutched a tiny bottle.

Carefully opening the bottle, the doomed girl poured its contents into a glass of wine. She toasted someone invisible, whispering, "To my husband," and drank it down.

Almost immediately, Anju fell to the floor, shivering and convulsing. Foam dribbled from her mouth. She gave one weak cry and was still forever.

The room changed once more; Jake and I were back in our own time. Anju was crying again, transparent tears softly falling to the floor. "Why did you kill yourself?" asked Jake.

_Because Kafei no longer loved me, _whimpered Anju. _He never sent back the Pendant. That boy never came back. I supposed Kafei told him not to. _I frowned.

"What'd she say?" demanded Jake, seeing the upset look on my face. I told him gently, and his look changed from fascinated to miserable. "That's so . . . sad."

"Do you know where Kafei was?" I inquired of Anju. She sniffed.

_No. Kafei sent me a letter explaining that he had to go away, but the postman didn't tell me where he was. _Her head dropped. _Kafei . . . my love . . . ._

She vanished.

Jake still wore that damnable, wide-eyed look on his face. "Where'd she go?" he asked blankly.

"Duh, she vanished, ya little twerp," I growled. I sat at the table and glared at the polished surface.

He sat next to me. He had that look on his face, the soft, worried look that made his whole face seem sad. "Lexis, what are we gonna do?" he said expectantly.

"It's a dead end, dummy," I snapped back. I was suddenly furious and miserable inside. "No postman, no letter from Kafei, hell, we don't know where he spent _his _last moments. Anju decided to take poison and the messenger boy who _knew _something vanished. Probably grew up, raised a family, and forgot about the two. Or, he had a great laugh telling his grandkids about how he cheated them out of marriage, how he led Anju to kill herself, how he knew exactly where Kafei was but opted to make Anju's last moments a living hell until she _killed herself_!" I buried my face in my arms. "I just hate it! This girl really loved this guy, and this _kid _screws up, or the guy doesn't love the girl! I want to get to the bottom of this mystery and find out who ruined her life, the boy, or the man!" I started to cry. It didn't seem fair. Anju deserved closure, but what the hell could we do about it?!

Jake put a hand on my shoulder. "It's gonna be okay, sis," he said awkwardly. "We'll find out what to do."

"How?" I sniffed. "We don't have any leads, Jake. We're a pair of teenagers trying to solve a 200-plus-year-old mystery. What the hell are we gonna do?!"

"I don't know." Jake seemed upset. "I don't know what to do."

Annoyingly, my Guardian chose this opportunity to open his mouth. _**Girl . . . check the Laundry Pool.**_

_Huh?_

_**Just do it.**_

I growled a curse. _What is the Laundry Pool?_

**_Follow . . . find . . . follow . . . find . . . ._** And suddenly, I knew where to go. The Guardian implanted it in my head. I slid off the chair and slowly walked out the door, Jake shouting questions behind me.

I walked down the street, my brain dreamily unconcerned about my surroundings. I had no idea what I was doing. I passed a boy on his bicycle, countless houses, and even the Library, hearing dimly the pounding footsteps of my younger brother beside me. Finally I stopped, turning down a narrow alleyway.

I had the feeling nothing much changed in this place. A river ran into the wall on the left and under a building on the right. Thick metal grilles kept larger objects from floating away, probably for clothes and the like when Anju still lived. The bridge that crossed it was small and made of iron.

I growled, frustrated, and turned around. Jake sat in the grass, panting in exhaustion. "Where are we?" he asked, between gulps of air.

"Where the Guardian wanted us to be," I responded. _Now why?_

_**It is time you know the truth.** _A ghostly figure began to slowly materialize beside me. Scared, I backed up. The bluish, transparent figure was a boy, maybe eleven, or twelve at the most. His hair was blonde, his eyes crystal blue, and his strange tunic was green. On his back were a sword and a shield I recognized from the Hylian Museum. A Hylian Shield, used by the soldiers hundreds of years ago.

_**I am Link,**_ he said finally**. _I was the messenger Anju sent to Kafei. He was living here;_** he indicated the door in the far corner, one I hadn't seen._**I had the Pendant of Memories with me. Kafei loved Anju dearly. But . . .** _

**"**But WHAT?!" I snarled at him. He sighed.

_**As I attempted to return to Anju, I heard of a paranormal researcher that might be able to help Kafei. When I traveled to Ikana Canyon, I was killed in a rockslide.** _Link explained somberly**. _Just before I died, I buried the Pendant in the graveyard, in case I . . . I didn't make it back._**

"Why didn't you tell Anju's ghost?" I demanded, feeling the tears on my cheeks again. "She'd feel so much better!" It wasn't _fair_!

**_I never found out what became of Kafei afterwards_,** said Link sadly**. _I did not want her to know of this, my greatest failure. It is all my fault she died, it is all my fault Kafei never told her how much he loved her . . . ._**

"What was wrong with Kafei?" asked Jake. At my inquiring look, he added, "I can hear this guy for some reason."

**_I can project into both your minds_. **_**And as for Kafei . . . .** _he sighed ghostily**. ****_Have you ever heard of Majora?  
_  
**"The evil mask dude? Yeah, I've heard of him," I responded. "Why?"

_**He turned Kafei into a little boy right before his wedding. An old thief called Sakon then stole his wedding mask. Overwrought with grief, Kafei sought the help of his old friend and stayed with him. Poor Anju . . . .**_

"But what can we do about it?" I demanded angrily. "Where's the Pendant?"

_**It is still in the graveyard, beside the old tree, next to the grave marked, "Lyru, Servant of Mother Farore." You must find it, and quickly. **_

**"**But what do we do with it?!" I snarled. "Anju's DEAD!"

_**Find Kafei.**_

"He's dead too."

_**You'll know what to do when you find the Pendant.** _Link rapidly faded away, leaving us alone in the late afternoon sunlight.

When we arrived at home again, Mom was waiting for us, a cleaning rag in one hand. "Where have you two been?" she demanded crossly. "I asked you two to help us clean up the rooms this morning! We'll have guests by the end of summer and those rooms are full of dust and grime!"

"Sorry, Mom," said Jake obediently.

Mom frowned at us. "And by the way, you two have been spending a lot of time together. What's up?"

"Jeez, Mom, can't I just be spending time with my little bro?" I demanded.

"Well, Miss Pierce, the librarian, said that you've been checking out books pertaining to this Inn and asking around about someone named Anju."  
"We were curious," I replied innocently. "I guess Anju killed herself here and—"

"Alexis!" I flinched. "What a horrible thing to say!" Mom raised her voice only rarely, but when she did, you were in for it.

"But it's true, Mom," said Jake earnestly. "It's really true!"

"Enough!" our mother's sharp voice made Jake fall silent. "Now you're filling your brother's head with morbid thoughts too! Alexis, I've had enough of this. Go to your room, you're grounded, little missy."

"For how long?" I asked.

Mom scowled dangerously. "At least a week. In that time, you're not allowed out of the house or out of your room past eight. You'll help us clean out the rooms and will _not _talk with Jake. I can't have you stuffing his head full of vile, morbid, horrible things such as this."

Link took the time to pipe up.** _A week is too long. You must find Kafei before then, or it will be too late._**

_Let me see if I can convince her. _I replied. Aloud, I began, in a pleading voice, "Mom . . . "

"No buts! One week. Your room. No cell phone, no music, no leaving the house. Period."

She turned, cleaning rag in hand, and headed off down the hall.

**_

* * *

Sorry, I kinda cheaped out on the end. I'm still sick and my head hurts as if Link hit me with the Megaton Hammer. Sorry _:(  
Zelda: Review!**


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